Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi/Chicago: India on Thursday said it was concerned that Mumbai terror suspect David Headley was to change his plea to guilty, even as New Delhi awaited his statement in a Chicago court.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram met US intelligence chief Dennis C. Blair to convey New Delhi's concerns. Government sources said the Indian side sought access to Headley's American wife to ascertain
whether she had any knowledge about his activities in India.
The Indian probe agencies have claimed that she had
knowledge about his activities during his stay in the
sub-continent.
49-year-old Headley is married to two women including a
Moroccan, who spilled the beans for him. Charged with
conspiring in the Mumbai terror attacks, he is set to plead
guilty before a US court in an apparent bid to bargain for a
lighter sentence and escape death penalty.
If Pakistani-American Headley pleads guilty, it would affirm the suspicions of many in the security establishment in India that Headley was a double agent who worked for the CIA.
Headley, arrested by the FBI in October last year, has moved a plea bargain at a Chicago court which will come up for hearing Thursday night before US District Judge Harry Leinenweber.
The Headley issue figured in discussions when US National Intelligence Director Blair, along with US ambassador Timothy J. Roemer, met the home minister Thursday ahead of Headley's court appearance.
On the hour-long meeting with Chidambaram, Roemer said
it was aimed at updating the Home Minister on "continued,
very close cooperation" between India and the US as per the
"historic understanding" reached between Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama in November last on
fighting the "common enemy of terrorism and continuing to work
together".
He told reporters that the US has been receiving
"unprecedented day-by-day, hour-by-hour cooperation" from
India on counter terrorism issues.
The two sides are understood to have discussed the issue
of terrorism that continues to emanate from Pakistan and
threatening India as well as many other parts of the world.
"We are waiting for Headley's statement," External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters here.
Krishna skirted a question on whether India will seek the extradition of Headley, accused of providing support to the Pakistani terrorists who went on a killing spree in Mumbai in November 2008.
"The Home Ministry will be in a better position to tell you about it," was Krishna's reply. "We are watching today's proceedings very closely."
Intelligence agencies in India are trying to figure out whether Headley's purported move is part of a proffer agreement he has struck with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The Home Ministry has suspected that Headley was a CIA agent who infiltrated the Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Toiba terror group before becoming a double agent. It feels its fears will be vindicated if Headley pleads guilty and manages a lighter sentence.
Headley faces six counts of conspiracy involving bombing of public places in India, murdering and maiming people in India and abroad and providing logistical support to terror groups.
He also faces six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of six American citizens in India.
A US court said Wednesday that Headley was scheduled for a plea-bargaining hearing Thursday before US District Judge Harry Leinenweber.
Headley, also accused of plotting attacks against a Danish newspaper, originally pleaded not guilty to 12 charges in connection with attacks in India.
Agencies’ inputs
First Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 23:27